Friday, August 24, 2012

Garlic Cheesesticks

My very first job that I ever had was as a lifeguard at a community college in my hometown. I did it for two summers and was just about to move into doing it during the school year when I got into a bad car accident and broke my collar bone. For some reason, my boss didn't like the idea of having a lifeguard with a broken collar bone...weird, I know. He told me that I could come back when I was healed up, but I decided to start working with my best friend instead - at a pizza place. I actually loved working there. Who knew that tossing and flipping dough could be so much fun?? The best food in that place was hands down their garlic cheesesticks. Although I'm sure mine don't taste near as good as theirs did, I still thoroughly enjoy them!

This recipe isn't anything fancy. It's just plain and simple, but it definitely gets the job done. We used the same dough that we made for our Margherita Pizza. Heck, maybe you should just have a meal out of this and make both things! (This recipe will make one large thing of cheesesticks or two small ones.)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup hot water (as hot as you can run it from the tap, but NOT BOILING or you will kill the yeast.)

3/4 tsp. dry active yeast

1-1/2 tsp. olive oil

1-1/2 tsp. salt

1-1/2 tsp. sugar

1-1/2 cups bread flour (or all-purpose is fine)

non-stick cooking spray

2 Tbsp. butter, softened

2 cloves garlic

1 to 1-1/2 cups mozzarella cheese

Dry basil (optional)

Directions:

Sprinkle the yeast over the water and let sit for five minutes until yeast blooms.

Add the olive oil, sugar, and salt to the yeast and stir.

In a separate bowl, measure out flour and add yeast mixture to it, stirring until well combined. (At this point, the dough may seem sticky, but don't worry, this is exactly how it's supposed to be.)

Spray a separate bowl with cooking spray and place dough in it.

Cover dough and let sit for about an hour, until doubled in size.

After dough is done rising, preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Roll out dough until about 1/2 inch thick. (More or less, depending on how you like it.)

Combine butter and garlic and with a pastry brush, spread mixture generously over pizza dough.

We ate at Olive garden today, and these look so much better. I love anything with garlic on or in it! Great photography shot. Thanks for sharing your creative inspiration with Sunday’s Best – you helped make the party a success! PS - following you on Facebook!

Talk about timing! I was just telling my hubby that in light of the high price of food, I'm revamping our family meals to include more soups. These bread sticks will be a perfect AND inexpensive side to many (especially italian) ones that I plan on making. Thanks for putting this out there!

I love anything that has bread, garlic, and cheese. Great recipe. Thank you so much for sharing with Wednesdays Adorned From Above Link Party last week. This weeks Link Party is opened at http://www.adornedfromabove.com/2012/09/simple-anti-aging-moisturizer-and.htmlfrom Wednesday until Sunday.Hope to see you there.Debi BolocofskyAdorned From Abovewww.adornedfromabove.com

Looks so good I want to lick the computer screen!! Thanks for linking up to Tasty Thursdays on The Mandatory Mooch. I hope you will link up again this week. The party will be live tonight. http://www.mandatorymooch.blogspot.com

Hello Sarah! Okay, So I just made these and my husband and I LOVED them! He just went on and on about how good the dough was (I agreed). It was delicious! Thank you for sharing a little part of Ephraim with me that I left behind when I moved! It was fun to eat these! Thanks! -Jenna Haderlie ( I know I look stupid always having to sign, I don't know how to change my name from unknown. Oops. Sorry!)